1995 Dodge Neon Highline review from North America

3 months into owning the car, a mysterious problem caused the battery to totally discharge (I suspect it is because of the glove compartment wiring, because since the bulb has blown, the problem has disappeared). After being towed to the dealership 4 times, the service rep had the nerve to tell me 'you must have a gremlin'.

At 92300 miles, my head gasket went. All the usual signs: the overheating, the gurgling of the radiator, the oil leaking... As an aside, this occurred AFTER I had a Dynomax muffler installed, and quite frankly, I don't have a clue if the gasket went before, since I was a naive innocent (poor) buyer when I got this car. DaimlerChrysler REFUSED to help with the replacement, citing multiple owners, and high mileage. The dealership tried to hit me with a 2100 bill (in all fairness, it included some sort of bushings for the front end, but...). Got the head gasket replaced for 1g (you can actually buy the gasket itself for as little as 60 bucks, it's the labor that kills you, and the oil and radiator purge, and the timing belt, and..), and since these guys actually shaved my head down (something a lot of dealers do NOT do, hence the recurrences of the blow in a lot of cars), I ended up with a better compression ratio!

The passenger window seal, well, doesn't. I can gauge my speed by when it starts to sing, except on windy days, when it sings much earlier...

As time has progressed, the body noise has increased. I know there's something loose in my door, I assume a wire, but it isn't worth the effort to try to find it, for example...

In spite of all its problems (I only listed the major ones), my car is a pocket rocket. It handles like a dream, and I would rather drive it than the brand new car I just bought my wife (well, the Mopar PCM, the Iceman Intake, the Pacesetter header, the muffler all help reinforce that argument for me), unless I simply want to do a lazy Sunday drive.

Well, if there wasn't a 2.4 turbo Neon in the works, I would never buy another DaimlerChrysler product. But I have no choice, but to make an exception for this pocket rocket, that has never failed to disappoint me (I beat an Impala SS, Camaros, numerous 'tricked out' imports (think Honda, Mitsubishi, etc, etc...), and many cars that would surprise you with my pocket rocket.)

If you are buying this car for comfort, forget it. Well, actually, the Generation 2 Neons are actually a lot more 'refined' than the original design, and problems like the passenger window noise are history. But if you want a real zippy car that will beat the pants off most other 'sporty' cars at a good price, this is it. The Neon will win the stoplight shootout more often than not. And fuel economy rocks! Well, as long as you don't get a performance Powertrain Controller Module, that is.